Who Says Black and Blue Can't Heal the World?
by TruthinessChibiOtaku-sama
Summary: Post-Walpurgisnacht. Once again, Homura Akemi has ended a timeline with the same result: failing to save Madoka Kaname. However, as she is starting to lose hope, something is different. Someone who she never considered would survive, much less offer her the gift of comfort and understanding...is alive? What does this mean? Only time will tell if Love and Justice are truly real.


**Author's Note: Hi there. This is my very first fanfiction on this site or at all. I wrote about one of my favorite crack (lol not anymore) pairings from Puella Magi Madoka Magica because they need more love. Well, hope you enjoy, and me likey criticism and feedback. Even if you don't care for Sayaka x Homura or whatever, I would appreciate it if you read this anyway, because I really worked hard on it. The only warnings I'm probably going to mention is Yuri/shoujo ai (girls love) so if you don't like magical lesbians you might want to click the back button on the top left hand corner. It's completely safe for work though. Oh, except there's a bit of harsh language here and there and some physical abuse (it's minor but just to be cautious). I think this is a T rating anyway. ^_^**

**Well that's enough of me ranting. Hope you enjoy! **

Who Says Black and Blue Can't Heal the World?  


The sky is falling. Or at least that's how you feel. All around you is darkness, all around you is the bleak reality that everything will end and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Of course, you can always try to do something, but there's no guarantee that you'll succeed even in the end. Why should the result change now when it never did before?

Towering high above you is a melody of oblivion. It is the formless mass of despair and grief that will not go away. Because you know that it is her. It has never been anything but her. In the blink of an eye, the greatest magical girl defeated the greatest of all witches in a single strike…and with all of her power invested into that one attack…she instantly became the one who would bring salvation to magical girls and humans alike at the expense of the Earth's existence. The white demon who took your soul has always told you this, and you have never thought of any reason not to believe him. After all, he has never told a direct lie, so why should he skewer the truth about what is obvious?

You have no idea how many times it has been. All of the memories of the ancient past, which ultimately was in your eyes the inevitable future you so desired, were fleeting. All that flashed across your eye were specks of dust which held all the truth and feeling that no matter what you did you would always fail. Kyubey told you that. Oriko told you that. They told you that. And you can't even begin to think of any reason to doubt them yet you don't even remember who these people really were and why their words mattered.

How did it become like this? How did everything fall apart, leaving you to pick up the pieces? How did you change from the shy, meek and fragile girl with the glasses, the pigtails and a weak heart into this dark prince who desired to obtain a goal that could no longer be considered noble and was unfitting of you due to your gender and status? Did you even consider remembering how everything got to this point? Did you even stop to think if you cared anymore?

You are Homura Akemi, age 14. You have no living relatives to speak of, and even if you did, you would never see them again. In fact, they probably didn't even know you existed in the first place. You had contracted with the cat from Hell, who granted the wish that would determine the rest of your existence. You have repeated the same month innumerable times in the hope that you could save your sole reason for being, the light upon your dark, your Savior. The kind girl named Madoka Kaname, who befriended you and protected you as if you were closer than a real sister, more than just her best friend, until she died as a magical girl fighting against the great witch Walpurgisnacht, her victory in defeating it which claimed her life. You obtained the power to manipulate time and space itself and snap the chains of fate. You have given up everything. You have no home. You have no family. You have no life. You have given up your love for everything and everyone. You have burned bridges and destroyed relationships between yourself and all those who care about you. And you say to yourself that you have no regrets. No regrets in not saving the one clad in yellow like the bright sun whose heart was too big for her own good nor the red knight whose image reflected the blood of her victims as she locked away her heart and desire to have a family and live her life as a fairy tale. And finally…there was the blue one. The blue one that gave up her soul in order to be able to protect the object of her desire, and had the fruit of her labors thrown back in her face by the uncaring world. Once that happened, she ended it up becoming the very thing she had been fighting against with all her strength. And you merely turned a blind eye because she wasn't pink. She wasn't the one you made this wish for in the first place. She wasn't the one you suffered and strived for. You didn't give a damn. She wasn't Madoka Kaname, so she couldn't be helped. You even thought that it would be a greater mercy to just end her suffering, not for her sake, you told yourself, but for Madoka's. Everything was for Madoka and Madoka alone.

And speaking of that beautiful girl whose eyes shown into yours like the heavens were smiling at you, whose smile could make the light of a thousand suns pale in comparison, what became of her now? The real existence called Madoka Kaname ended as soon as she transformed into that thing. Now lay the body of the once proud angel of light on the cold, dark and unfeeling ground that reflected the death all around you. You wouldn't cry and you wouldn't scream. You promised to be strong, to become her protector even though she is ALWAYS protecting you because she is TOO GOOD, TOO PURE, TOO BEAUTIFUL. This world does not deserve to exist when its greatest gift is a child like her, as it plays with her life as if the gift meant nothing. As if they are ungrateful that she ever blessed it with her presence at all. And this is when you hear the ringing of a noise that is not the moan of your sweet angel become Death herself. It is the sound of someone who has lost everything. Who has given up on the world and wants nothing more than to find its value or perish along with it. Who cannot distinguish what is real and what is merely her fairy tale. Where love is neither selfish nor selfless, it is merely all and nothing at the same time. There is someone next to the body of that angel. There is a girl mourning the loss of a gift from God, and cursing the world around her. And finally, she speaks, and you are unsure if turning around or even acknowledging her presence is even worth it.

"Madoka," she says. "Madoka, please wake up. Please wake up. This isn't funny. I know I play many games with you and even tease you a lot but this is cruel. Stop it. It's not funny anymore. Please. Give me a sign. Give me a sign that you're awake. This is all a joke on me and we will be laughing about this over ice cream or tickling each other or me telling you more about our lives together when I marry you and Kyousuke, right? Please. MADOKA. WAKE. UP." She is crying now. You do not see the tears upon her face but you do hear her sobbing. Although you want to turn around, you can't. You can't even begin to face her, begin to see how she looks. You're scared and hurt and so is she, but you don't even know why. You have seen Madoka's death so many times, how is it any different from now?

But this time is different. Sayaka Miki. The bluenette who claimed to be a knight fighting for love and justice who always turned into a mermaid whose heart had been impaled by the simple cruelty of her fate. The one you had treated for oh so long as acceptable collateral damage. She who used to ask you to help her with the math homework that Saotome-sensei actually gave out when she was willing to teach or speak about anything but her troubles with men. The one who suggested that you stop time in order to help cheat for the test you knew both of you would fail, her because she didn't care to study and you because you simply didn't have the heart or strength to devote your time to numbers and equations you would never use in your short lifespan. Miki-san, who would find you crying outside of Madoka's house in the pouring rain when she had to babysit her little brother Tatsuya and had no time for being with you that evening and race to your side. That blue-haired girl who wanted to be a prince saw you in your most pitiful state and she picked you up on her back, took you back to her house and wrapped you in a warm blanket safe from anything that would ever dare to harm you. You would fall asleep in her arms after she had given you hot cocoa and the warmth of another's company and she would sing you to sleep ever so softly. She had a beautiful voice. And you felt safe in her arms. There was nothing cruel or angry or sad or dark or painful that could touch you while you were in her embrace. And the next morning, you would walk to school with her, Madoka and Shizuki-san like you the night before was just a bad dream.

But so was the timeline where she hated you for denying her the chance to protect Hitomi from that bad dream which would consume her life because you had to open your big, fat mouth about the truth. That all five of you were being deceived by the white devil, and you had seen it with your own eyes. You had felt it as you held Madoka in her dying state within your own arms. And you knew what the deception was. Miki-san called you out on it, called YOU the deception, because you sent bombs flying in her face, the only weapon you could make with Madoka that would actually make you an able fighter regardless of your time magic and decided you trusted the red lancer Kyouko Sakura to fight Walpurgisnacht with you instead of her and Tomoe-sempai. And in the nights to come, you saw Miki-san fall further and further into the darkness in her desperation to not show regret for the wish she made as saving Hitomi became even more painful than the possibility of letting her be consumed by death and once again, she became a being of anguish and true suffering. One which you were forced to kill in cold blood if only so the others could live and she would not die in vain. But who could have expected Mami Tomoe to strike down Kyouko Sakura upon learning the truth, and then proceed to extinguish your life only if Madoka had not hit first. Who could have anticipated that you would lie side by side the next day as the world lay in ruins around you, knowing and wanting nothing more than to stay with her forever as everything came tumbling down, even as Walpurgisnacht was defeated? And the promise you made to Madoka, the one where you would stop her from contracting and suffering no matter how many times you had to go back, the promise you made as you pulled out your gun and started crying tears that wouldn't stop in the pouring rain and black of the world as you shot her darkening Soul Gem into a million pieces and turned back time right then and there. Those were things you couldn't possibly forget. But it was all because of the pink-haired daughter of God who gave everything so that she had so you could live. Then why did you think about the blue-haired wannabe knight now crying at her side. What did she have to do with any of this? Why did you even care?

With too many memories flooding in, too many complicated feelings, you flinch and double over. Tears of your own start falling from nowhere, and there's nothing holding them back. You clench your shield, your key to reuniting and saving her once you turn it, but just as you are about to do the deed and leave these girls at the mercy of the impending salvation corrupted by agony that you sought to prevent, the shield slips out of your hands and falls onto the hard ground with a sharp clang. And that is when you are on your knees, submitting to your circumstances and letting your hair waver in the wind as you cry into your fists as they hit the ground, smashing it with all the willpower you have that befits the excruciating pain that you are feeling. And it is then and only then that Sayaka Miki finally speaks to you.

"T-T-Transfer S-Student?" she stutters out the words with all of her willpower as her face is coated in dried up tears and snot and no longer looks like one a proud knight like her should wear even when she has reached the point of no return. She tries again. "Akemi-san?"

"Why. WHY. WHY. ARE. YOU. HERE?! YOU'RE NOT MADOKA. YOU NEVER WERE. YOU WEREN'T EVEN SAKURA-SAN OR TOMOE-SEMPAI. WHY. ARE. YOU. ALIVE?!" You kept pounding the ground and trying to hold those tears back with no avail.

"Why shouldn't I be alive? Or is that not the question you wanted me to answer?" Sayaka was now standing up on her own two feet, crossing her arms and looking down at you in your pitiful form.

"You're. DEAD. You should be. DEAD. DEAD like HER. LIKE. THEM. You should be one of those things. Not human. Not a magical girl. Not alive. A WITCH. You should be DEAD. JUST. LIKE. HER." If she thought you were crazy for talking like this, she wouldn't have been wrong. However, you could barely speak and you could barely breathe at the rate your tears were falling and your words were stabbing at her. And she for once was not taking them.

"Why should I be dead? Why should I be like her? Madoka, my best friend, the one girl I've known and loved since pretty much the day we were born, is dead. And I'm still alive. As are you. Why should it be any different?"

"You always die. You always fall. You never listen and you always suffer and you always make her suffer and I always rewind everything to try and fix everything but it never works and I just don't know if I can do it anymore and YOU ALWAYS LEAVE ME ALONE."

"Always? What do you mean by that, Akemi-san?" Upon awaiting an answer to her questions, Sayaka finds in her line of sight a disc, silver and glimmering with chrome, lying on its side on the ground beside you. It has a pattern of what looks to be an hourglass design on its surface with what looks to be pools of purple sand on either side. She is about to pick it up but then hears a sharp squeak of DON'T from you on the ground in front of her. She ignores your cries and gently picks the object up and cradles it in her hands.

"Akemi-san, what is this?"

Feeling like the atmosphere of silence and refusing to answer these questions will only make you feel even more wretched, you decide to answer her bluntly but clearly in a very abrupt manner. "It's a shield that can manipulate time and space once you turn it in certain directions. It helps me to stop time when I am fighting witches or go back…why am I telling you all of this?"

"Because I asked you to, Akemi! Goddammit, why is when somebody asks you a question you always try to find ways to skirt around answering it. You're so FUCKING stubborn. No wonder you don't have any FRIENDS!"

"Of course I don't have friends," you bit back. "Because they always DIE on ME. AND. NEVER. COME. BACK. UNLESS. I. DO. SOMETHING. LIKE…"

"Like what?"

You breathe into your fists so that the words you say next will come out muffled and unintelligible. "I…runtnf baycyj tuimne."

"What? What did you say, Akemi? I didn't hear that. Please speak up."

"I rurun bucujk triune."

Sayaka watches you trying to avoid answering her and she balls up her fists, looking as if she is going to strike you down. You try not to notice, but at the same time, you also don't see her dropping the shield, stomping over to where you are and grabbing your arm. You let out a yelp and beg for her to let you go. But she refuses. She now has you held up by the arm as you're quite fragile despite how you act otherwise and you're afraid that she's going to break it. Your face is slightly below hers and you can hear her heart beating and see the redness and anger coursing through her veins at your inability to properly speak to her.

"I'm not going to ask you again. What is it that you do when your friends die with that shield? Come on, I know you can talk. Spit it out, Transfer Student. Crying and wallowing in your own self-pity won't solve anything. And I'm the only one here, so you might as well tell Sayaka Miki what your problem is."

It's funny how much it hurts to hear the same words you've said to her God knows how many times spat back in your face by the one girl you've hurt the most by saying such things to her face. Is this karma? You don't really know whether you believe in such things, but this seems like an appropriate time to describe this experience like that. Finally, you decide to let it all out, spit it back in her face and really let her have it.

"Akemi...I'm waiting." She's still holding your arm high up in the air with your weight dangling from it. She is taller than you by several inches, after all. You seem to forget that often.

"I turn back time." You sputter out.

"What? Louder, please."

"I turn back TIME."

"I still can't hear you."

"I TURN BACK TIME!"

"I STILL CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

"YOU FUCKING BITCH, I TURN BACK TIME BECAUSE YOU ALWAYS TURN INTO A GODDAMN WITCH BECAUSE YOU CAN'T GET THAT BOY WHO DOESN'T EVEN LOVE YOU AND YOU MAKE MADOKA SUFFER SO SHE BECOMES A MAGICAL GIRL AND TURNS INTO ONE TOO! I HATE YOU, SAYAKA MIKI! I FUCKING HATE YOU!" All of a sudden, you roar in her face, but it doesn't feel good to do that. In fact, now her face is no longer plastered with that red fury that resembles Kyouko's magical girl uniform. It's pure white…and the fist grasping your arm slowly starts to loosen as you slowly fall out of her grip back onto the ground. And once again, there are tears streaming down your face like rivers. You don't even know where they're coming from.

She looks ahead, not paying attention to the fact that you are sitting at the base of her feet, at the black void of arms outstretched and moaning cries that if you heard them clearly enough, you could have sworn they were calling yours and Sayaka's names. But you shake away the thought as preposterous as it sounds because there's no reason to even imagine that.

"So that…that thing…is Madoka?"

You do not move but you reply to her anyway. "Yes."

"And…you're telling me that…that all magical girls turn into witches and look somewhat like that?"

"That's right, Miki-san."

"Why are you being so formal? Can't you call me anything else? Anyway…so…you've been using this shield…to go back in time to stop Madoka from contracting with Kyubey…and turning into that thing, right?"

"Yes."

"And you've done this how many times?"

"I've lost count."

"Do Mami-san and Kyouko die too?"

"Mami-san is usually killed by a witch or despairs of her own accord after learning the truth about magical girls becoming witches. Sakura-san…she…either dies by the hands of Mami when she cannot handle the truth and thinks we would be better off dead…or she…" Homura finds herself at a loss for words when she thinks about how Kyouko often sacrifices herself to put Sayaka out of her misery once she has become a witch and is all alone. The memories of it happening are so numerous, it is the one thing other than seeing Madoka fall that she cannot forget no matter how hard she tries. It hurts more than the hottest fire or the coldest shard of ice. If she still had her heart condition, she'd possibly have been dead from how she feels right now a long time ago.

Sayaka is blinking tears back while hearing you respond to her questions. "Or she what?"

"W-when you become a witch…sometimes she decides…that s-she doesn't w-want y-you to s-suffer a-alone…so she s-sacrifices herself…so that you don't have to b-bear all of that pain of not being able to be with Kamijou-kun even after giving up your soul to heal his injured hand…alone."

Sayaka has tears streaming down her face now, as she slowly looks downward at you. You have never seen her like this, but you assume from what Kyouko had told you so many times before that this is the face of not the Blue Knight who promised to protect everyone's happiness but of someone who was losing hope and could not be saved if she lost it all together. Her Soul Gem on her navel was not black but she still looked the way she did when her own clouded up so many times before, especially the times when you had to kill her.

"I s-see. And w-what about the times when you had to kill me? How did you feel about doing it?"

"It was…bothersome."

"So you regretted it?"

"I guess…you could say that."

"Why are you so cold, Akemi? Why do you always stumble over your words or say things like your throat is made of ice?"

"My name means 'flame', and Madoka once told me that I should be cool to match my name which she thought was 'cool', and so…"

You don't get to finish that sentence because all of a sudden you have a red hand print upon your face and the bull-red face of Sayaka is back in your line of vision.

"You idiot!"

"Miki-san…why did you just…"

"You just don't get it, do you? You are literally that much of a moron and a fool and now I am standing here yelling at you when it's not like you would listen to someone who is not Madoka and is already fucking DEAD in your eyes. She didn't mean that you should lock up your feelings and your thoughts inside and act like a LIVING PITY MAGNET!"

"Then what did she mean?"

"She was trying to help you feel good about yourself. She was trying to make you feel like your name was worth something, not that you were all pathetic and helpless and needing to cling onto her."

"And how would you know this?"

"Because. SHE. DID. THE. SAME. FOR. ME. And I'll never forget that, because it was proof that she was my best friend and that she loved me and even though she's dead...I'll cherish the things that she gave to me."

"I see. But what about me is there to feel good about? Before I became a magical girl, I had nothing. My parents died in a car crash. I had a weak heart. I was the laughingstock in an orphanage full of kids who called me things like 'nerd', 'dyke', 'bitch', 'whore' and the list goes on. I spent years in a hospital expecting to die and pass on from this world. It didn't need someone like me. And then, when I finally get to middle school, when I finally transfer into middle school and I meet her, I feel like I'm nothing compared to her. Like I'm a complete failure and a coward and since I couldn't stay awake in gym class or couldn't answer the damn math problem on the board or couldn't protect her from bullies who were harassing me while she was trying to defend me, I thought maybe I should just die."

Another slap. Of course she was expecting that.

"STOP THAT! Don't say ONE more bad thing about yourself! I won't have it!"

"Why not? Everything's bad about me, so why shouldn't I just accept-"

"You don't have any idea how much it hurts me to see people like you digging graves for themselves. You don't have any idea how much I pity you, because you don't even stop to think about how many people would have been sad if something happened to you. I wish I could take away all those feelings of doubt, all those feelings of worthlessness…but that's the thing, isn't it? AS YOU SAID, I WASTED IT ON THAT GODDAMN BOY! WHO DIDN'T EVEN APPRECIATE WHAT I DID FOR HIM!"

Sayaka looks at Homura's face when she says that, tears threatening to pour out once more. The girl's purple pupils reflect how she is feeling. She cannot even begin to imagine how much suffering and anguish she is feeling and wants nothing more than to take it all way. But she can't. So she grabs her shoulders hastily with her hands and sits down in front of her.

"Akemi. Please just tell me one thing. Does it hurt?"

"Does what hurt?"

"That feeling that you always fail to have your wish granted to you and you want nothing more than to crawl into a ball and die, but you know you can't? Because there's no one else around anymore and crawling into that ball without them by your side only hurts more? Do you hate it?"

"Miki-san…I don't understand the question-"

"GODDAMMIT, AKEMI! DO YOU LIKE BEING ALONE?! PLEASE, ANSWER ME! EVEN A YES OR NO! I DON'T FUCKING CARE! JUST PLEASE SAY SOMETHING! SAY YOU HATE ME! CALL ME A FOOL OR A BITCH LIKE YOU ALWAYS DO! JUST DON'T STAY SILENT LIKE THAT!"

Your face twists into shock when you see Sayaka's face so close to your own. And you realize what your answer to her is, but why can't you say it? You want to cry and you want to just tell her the truth, but for some reason, it's too painful to do so.

"Let me try it a different way, Akemi. Did you love her?"

Now she's got your attention. She's trapped you in a scenario you always feared that she or the others would trap you in. And now you don't know what else to do to get out of it. You really are a coward.

"I don't know w-what you mean, Miki-san."

"Sayaka-chan."

"Eh?"

"I'm sick of the formalities with you. Call me Sayaka-chan or don't bother speaking to me."

"M-mi…Sayaka-chan, I d-don't know what you mean."

You aren't that girl anymore, so why do you feel like one? Does she intimidate you? Does she make you feel such a way you don't understand because she is expressing sympathy and is that…compassion? Since when did she give a fuck about you? It's not like you ever gave a fuck about her so what changed?

"Ah. That's better. Well, allow me to explain, Homu-chan."

Your ears aren't broken. She did just call you that.

"Well…if you mean in terms of whether I was h-her f-friend or h-her s-sister…I-uh…"

"No. That's not what I meant, Homu-chan. I meant did you love her…as in…how a boy loves a girl he feels close to because she makes him feel special and him to her."

And now the truth finally comes out.

"I-I…Yes. I love her. I love Madoka Kaname with all of my heart and with every fiber of my being. There is no one else that can make me feel as alive or invincible as she can. If only she wasn't a-another girl…then I'd want to m-marry her."

"What does her being another girl have to do with it?"

"But in the orphanage…and Shizuki-san…they said 'Girls can't love girls'."

"So fucking what."

"Sayaka-chan, I-I…"

"That shouldn't stop you. If you love her you shouldn't care what others think and feel. You shouldn't be afraid to show that love to her, even if she is a girl. Because even if I didn't feel that way for her yet wanted to be with her for the rest of my days, that didn't stop me. How can something you made your wish for be wrong if your heart believes its right? Who cares about what's right and wrong anyway? We are magical girls. But we're also not human anymore. So it doesn't matter. We have to stick together until the end."

"But now I can never tell her b-because she's…d-dead."

"No, she's not. Because you can go back and save her, Homu-chan. But even better than that, she's in your heart. And that's the place that she needs to be."

Sayaka went silent. As you looked into her eyes, and saw that she truly cared. She was genuine in what she was saying, there was no deceit and there was no malice behind that expression.

"Homu-chan…what do you want?"

"What d-do y-you mean, S-Sayaka-chan?"

"Do you want to keep repeating this for her, over and over again, while getting the same results and not feeling any better? Or do you want to be happy?"

"But the f-first one…that's w-what I've always d-done…the second one is…it's too…late. I c-can't…"

"It's never too late."

Sayaka's grip on your shoulders finally loosens and she pulls you closer to her, wrapping your frail and tired form with her own, embracing you so that your chests touch and her arms squeeze you tight, not letting go. She looks deep into your eyes and then pulls you even closer, until your head sinks onto her shoulders and then she strokes your hair gently. This loving gesture, you had not experienced it from anyone but Madoka in so damn long, and even the way she is holding you now was something she has not done in what seems like forever…or never at all.

"I don't want you to be alone, Homu-chan. And I know you don't either. I'm so glad that you are doing this for her, but I don't want you to think that suffering and burdening all of those feelings and thoughts about what you can and cannot do is the answer. If you want to go back, that's fine. If you want to fall in love with her and chase her until the ends of time, I won't stop you. But I won't let you be alone. Even if you don't want me to, I'll go back with you. There's nothing left for us here, but we do have each other. That's all that matters right now."

Now the tears have finally started to fall and she continues to hold you in her embrace while she strokes your hair.

"S-Sayaka-c-chan...I-I…"

"The truth is that I remember. I remember who you are and who you were. The shy and weak transfer student who Madoka took under her wing and so was the start of an inseparable friendship. Truth is, I was jealous of you, because you finally had such a sweet girl taking care of you when you needed it most, the same girl I took care of years before. But then, I saw those times when you had fallen and couldn't get up, and something inside me made me realize I just couldn't leave you alone. I can't explain how I felt around you, but it was like something I've never felt for anyone. Not even for Kyousuke or Madoka or Hitomi or even Kyouko. All I wanted to do when I saw you stumbling on the sidewalk or crying outside Madoka's house was swoop in and hold you in my arms. I wanted to tell you, show you, and make you feel that everything was okay. That you wouldn't be alone and you wouldn't suffer because Sayaka-chan would never leave you and never left in the first place. But I did leave after all, didn't I? Because of you constantly going back to help her fight Walpurgisnacht, because of your desperation to keep her alive and away from Kyubey, so much so that you had felt that the world around you didn't matter, couldn't matter, when it all fell to ruin around you, so you even wrote off Mami-san, Kyouko and even me…I thought it was my fault. I got jealous over stupid things, like your friendship with Madoka replacing my own with her or when you worked with Kyouko and I disapproved or when I was too obsessed with seeing my wish for either Kyousuke or Hitomi come true only to see it blow up in my face. No matter what, I realize my suffering couldn't have been half as bad as what you had been through. I even remember one timeline when we were actually friends again, when you, me, Madoka and Hitomi were living without a care in the world until Mami-san brought her conflict with Mikuni-san into our lives and everything we had strived for was ruined. I especially remember once that I promised you, after by some miracle that I was revived, I promised you that I was going to find a way to make up for the trouble I caused you and help you protect Madoka until the very end. And now I'm promising to never leave you. I would understand if you hated me for all of that, I am an idiot after all. But I think my greatest regret is the fact that for so long I forgot. And then maybe I could have prevented all of this from happening."

Sayaka releases you from her embrace and walks over to where she left the time shield and gently picks it up off the ground as you wait patiently for her.

"Here, you have a job to do. I can't stop you from doing that, can I? When it's something only you can do, and it's the noblest thing that anyone's ever done for her. Even nobler than anything I ever did. You can't stay here, after all. She's coming. And you don't want to be there when she does, at least not this time around."

She hands the shield to you, and you look up into her eyes. She's no longer crying and she's even cracking a small smile, it's sad but genuine and it's still a smile. She reaches out her hand to you, asking without saying that she wants you to accept it and let her pull you off the ground.

"You have to be strong, Homu-chan. Nobody else can protect you but yourself. That doesn't mean of course, that you can't accept the help of others when you need it the most. Because whether you realize it or not, people do love you and care about you. And they don't want you to be alone. But they also want you to choose what you think is right. And be happy with the decision you made."

Sayaka begins to walk away, but you reach out your hand to her and squeak out, "Wait! Sayaka-chan, don't go! Please!"

"I'm not going anywhere. Unless you want me to. That's your choice to make."

"Come with me! We'll save her, together this time! I'm sure of it! I don't want to be alone anymore! I don't want to leave you! Please, I'm sorry for everything. I want…"

"Yes, Homu-chan, what do you want?" Sayaka begins to walk back toward you, grabbing your hand and looking into your eyes.

"I w-want…you."

"Homu-chan…" Sayaka was blushing as she couldn't believe the words you were saying.

"It's okay. You're not Madoka, but you don't need to be. Because despite all the opportunities you had, you never left. I was wrong for how I treated you, wrong for how I acted like what we had didn't matter. I realized that the only reason I suffered was because I was alone. Because I wasn't honest with myself over what I really wanted. And neither were you. So…I want to make it up to you, too. If you'll let me do that. Because I want to be with you. Only if you're okay with someone like me…"

At that moment, Sayaka cups the side of your face and presses her lips softly against yours. You stutter and blush at the sudden action, but then you gradually allow her access as your tongues lightly touch one another and you hold each other close, loving the feeling that you are giving one another.

"Is that enough of an answer, Homu-chan? Of course I'm okay with someone like you. I believe that if we are together, if we promise to grow stronger for one another and her, then there's no way we can possibly fail. So my answer is yes, Homu-chan? My answer is that I am okay with you…and I want to be with you too."

You smile as you look into those beautiful, glistening blue eyes filled with a love you never knew was even present until now. And you realize that you never want to see those blue eyes look any other way again for as long as you live. With Sayaka, you can be happy. You can save Madoka and not have to give up your love and your life for anyone. There is finally someone there to share the burden with. And that's all you could ever ask for. You take the time shield from her and place it back in its buckler. You grasp onto her hand and hold her tight against you. Likewise, she does the same.

"Are you ready to go, Sayaka-chan?"

"Of course I am, Homu-chan. What about you?"

"Yes. Hold on tight to me, okay?"

"Don't worry, I told you I would never let go."

"Mmhm. Let's go, together."

You proceed to turn the time shield in order to go back to that very same month, this time with someone else, Sayaka. And it is while you are in her embrace and holding onto her with one hand and pressed up against her, as you reach down to kiss one another as Time and Space begin to pick up like the winds across the barren wasteland of what was once Mitakihara and whisk you back to the fated month where you began each cycle, that you finally feel and think that you can repeat it once more. You have learned to love, and therefore you have learned to live. And if such a relationship can be done with somebody like Sayaka Miki, then you do have a chance and a choice.

And as Time and space begins to fall away as you see the familiar tunnel spiraling toward you with your lips against Sayaka's passionately and holding onto her like your life depended on it, because it did, you can't help but hear a faint whisper from the world where the dark void that hoped for salvation and received it in the most costly of ways as it echoes through the dark. It is a light that shines upon you both. You don't know witch speak, but you do know Madoka's voice and her words.

"Die Welt ist nicht die Hölle nach allem, weil Homura-Chan und Sayaka-Chan haben Liebe gefunden. Und ich könnte nicht glücklicher sein."

And then you realize that you couldn't agree more. And that alone is enough for both of you.

The End

Translation: The world is not Hell after all, because Homura-chan and Sayaka-chan have found Love. And I couldn't be happier.

**Author's Note: Well that's finally done. I'm quite proud about how this turned out. Again, hope you enjoyed, and feel free to leave some feedback/criticisms/constructive advice if you so choose. Thanks!**


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